If you must have a messenger bag, Crumpler makes great bags that are not only stylish but designed for nomads like yourself.

But if you want my opinion (har har) it all ends at Boblbee. I have, easily, 15-20 bags in the basement of various sizes, make, and model. The Boblbee is the only bag that I've consistantly used for ... 6? years. I have a smaller Patagonia sling bag I wear if I'm just out and about, but for my daily grind, the Boblbee is where its at.

Those bags do 'look' cool, but their website is beyond horrible. I might consider the X45, but when you hit the See Details, it shows one graphic with no details! D'OH!

I've been carrying a Trager Seattle Messenger bag for ~5 years now, and I'm a big fan. It's simple, but I feel like it strikes a pretty good balance between number of pockets and ease of finding things. Also, it's pretty big when full, but the material is pliable enough that when empty or near empty, it doesn't look very big.

All my cables and things are in an iPod gear bag from http://www.sfbags.com/index.htm. I may not carry as many as you do, though. I like having a small bag that holds everything, though, so I can easily transfer it to another bag when the whim hits. I also love sfbags computer sleeves -- they fit perfectly, instead of having three general sizes that end up with wasted space.

As for messenger bags, a friend recently recommended http://tombihn.com. and they look really good. I like the looks of their cafe bags. One of the things I liked so much about sfbags computer sleeves is I could choose whether I wanted vertical or horizontal orientation. I prefer vertical for my shoulderbags, so my laptop sleeve works better than the first one (horizontal) did.

I don't like them!

I mean, they're fine, but I prefer backpacks. This is probably because I have lower-back issues and find weight distribution is thousands of times better with a backpack than a messenger.

The Sleeve Case from Waterfield (sfbags) is of absolute importance. I can't recommend those enough. My 12" sleeps sleeved in the back of my Boblbee. Where my TiBook and Pismo once napped :)

Yes, their website sucks something fierce.

eBags has a Boblbee mini-store. They don't carry the full line though. If you're in NYC, Yellow Rat Bastard carries Boblbee. I'm sure a store near you has them in stock, ready to go.

I bought mine in 2000 at YRB. Its chrome. It looks like a rocket pack.

All of this bag talk has got me looking for a new bag, for my laptop primarily (ThinkPad T43).

ARGGGHHHHH

Will the madness never end.

I wasn't going to mention it, but hey, I have no pride.

The bag I've carried for over a year now is so ugly it's ugly. It's not ugly-trendy. It's just ugly. But when a year ago, I was looking for a "personal bag" to carry with me overseas (along with my carryon), I wanted something that would hold my laptop, some books, and whatever else I wanted to keep under the seat in front of me, at my fingertips, for the flight.

I ordered a Crumpler Bag, an Eagle Creek bag, and checked out several at REI -- all that were specifically made for laptops, etc. Didn't like any of them. I finally ordered this one:

http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=8&id=217 (in the evergreen)

And for some weird reason I can't explain, it just works for me. I figured out that I like the vertical configuration -- it doesn't catch on things as you walk by the way horizontal corners do. It also doesn't look like a laptop carrier so doesn't scream, "I'm carrying cool and expensive stuff." It feels better on my shoulder than most. It holds a lot of stuff -- in fact you can expand it and stuff it to the point where it's no longer considered a "personal item" and becomes a "carryon" bag, by airline standards, but I've never done that.

For me, it just works.

After a year of using it with no probs and great ease, I find myself checking out these other bags and thinking it would be nice to have one that looks really cool, though.

That's the other great thing about the Boblbee.

When I take a day or two off and just want to escape, I leave the laptop at home, throw 1.5 days worth of clothes into the Boblbee with some notebooks, a camera, my PSP/iPod and go.

Other bags I could do that but they expand out to rediculously awkward proportions and they're really not designed for it. The Boblbees can accomodate any possible dimension and still be comfortable. You can't tell from most pictures, but the whole thing is contoured and molded to fit a human.

Emory mentioned Crumpler bags, but I'm hesitant to drop that kind of scratch on a bag that I haven't had a chance to mess with hands on, so if any of you guys have experience with Crumpler bags, please post your thoughts. So far, I have considered the Crippy Duck, Considerable Embarrassment, The Luncheon, and The Part and Parcel. I'm not sure which one to choose and the "See inside this bag" pictures almost all look the same. The Considerable Embarrassment doesn't appear to have the pocket inside the flap, which I thought would be ideal for either my Powerbook's power cables or my (clean) gym clothes. So far, the Crippy Duck looks like the best choice. I really prefer a messenger bag for really quick access to stuff in my bag (especially if I move everything in there - keys, cards, phone, iPod, etc.) but if a backpack style bag does what I'm after, I think I could be persuaded.

Here is a picture of what I am currently wrangling, with a comment outlining what isn't pictured. Part of what concerns me with choosing a bag is that I have so many small items, especially the iPod and digital camera. I would like a bag that has a bunch of small pockets (at least a couple padded) for all this little junk. Some sort of separate area for cables and such would be nice. I sometimes carry gym clothes with me, so an area where I could hide those away would be nice. Obviously, a place for pens and pencils is a must. It would also be nice to have slots for credit cards and such so that I could ditch my wallet. I'll clip them up with a binder clip if I am going out without my bag.

Thanks for all your input thus far.

Before I bought my last bag, I ordered several online at once, knowing I would be returning all but one. I decided it was worth the postage. The Crumpler was cool but it didn't work for what I wanted. I think I mentioned before that I figured out after trying several that I actually didn't want another horizontal bag -- I wanted a vertical one. Check and see if they offer any of the ones you like at ebags -- ebags usually offers free postage at least to you, which would cut the expense in half. But don't be afraid to order what you think you want and send it back if you don't like it.

The other thing I finally learned after buying several different bags through the years is that no matter how much I think I'm going to like all those compartments, they quickly become annoying to me and I end up shoving stuff in loose. Either the pockets are tight and I have to be slow and careful to get things in, or they're arranged in a way that doesn't come natural to me. I finally realized that for purses, backpacks and bags I prefer something that is largely open, and I provide my own pouches. My iPod gear (and some of my camera gear, as well) fits nicely into the gear bag from SFBags. I have my own SFBag laptop sleeve. A small makeup bag. I do have a couple of pockets on the front that work well for the moleskine and some other smaller things, or a paperback, etc. I have a mesh pouch for a water bottle. But otherwise I like to have stuff in their own pouches which I can then easily remove and put in another bag at the drop of a hat, rather than all the built in compartments.

Crumpler makes great bags, we review them on PowerPage a lot.

Jason loves them.

I am totally hooked on my Boblbee and I will take pictures soon showing it off because I think people are unaware of just how useful they are. For example, I have a shoulder-pouch that slides onto the right strap that holds a boarding pass visible to Nosey Nancy the TSA Employee as well as zips open to hold spare cards, my Amtrak frequent-traveler doodad, etc.

And I have a lumbar cassette that holds a camera and a big flash, and side packs that snap on and strap in -- the one on the left holds my moleskines and the one on the right holds headphones, flashdrive, iPod and PSP without bulging at all.

Its a great bag but it is a backpack -- some people don't like backpacks.

I'm routinely on two wheels, I don't like messenger bags flailing around while I'm scooting around the city.

Okay here you go.

Boblbee pornography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/sets/72057594077367633/

Ha! I just did my evening check of the whatsinyourbag tag and there these were. I thought "hey, I've seen that Moleskine somewhere else..." :) I just saw Boblbees recently (on ebags?) and thought they were mighty unusual, although the black doesn't seem as backpack-rocket like. The white looks downright Stormtrooper-esque. How heavy is it?

I have The Big One. Boblbee calls it a Megalopolis. My wife has a pink People's Delite, which is smaller.

The PD will hold a 12-14 inch laptop with a sleeve around it, I bet. A wide-screen 15" would probably have to be sans-sleeve. But I could be wrong. I left Jumbo Stupid Thinkpad at work tonight so I can't test!

Boblbee also makes a purse that my wife uses as a smaller bag for going out. It has straps made of kevlar to foil cutpurses. Its called a Scarab or something. Shoulder-bag, metal.

The bags aren't especially heavy at all without anything in them. The shell is hard but not lead or something. It protects the contents without having a lot of weight. Its clearly designed for that -- weight counts.

Remember though that I'm 6'3". I'm big-backed. I think most people should stick to the PD if they're < 5'9".

Huh. I guess they wouldn't be heavy, but then again, it's amazing how many soft bags are much heavier than they appear. (for instance, the bags our marketing person ordered for everyone in the firm, firm logo embroidered on the flap -- much heavier than any bag has a right to be)

The reason the bags caught my eye in the first place is that I've been considering the jump to hard-sided luggage. It never occurred to me that you could get a hard-sided backpack! I can see where it would be very functional, though.

(I pity anyone who has to carry a ThinkPad -- I had to carry one for two weeks while our IT person hemmed and hawed over what to do about my terminally ill Vaio before deciding to just order me a new one.)

I'll see you in hell, Costanza.

What I wouldn't give for a VAIO PictureBook instead of the boat anchor they give me.

Does it make you feel any better if I tell you that my Sony mouse and my Sony laptop don't like each other? I have to unplug and replug the USB constantly because it just stops communicating. This did not happen one time when the Sony mouse was plugged into the ThinkPad.

I love my Vaio -- I think I missed the screen the most when I was in between machines. But I'm starting to believe they should be sold in 6-packs. I've been with the firm for 6 years and I'm on either my 5th or 6th one.

What is this PictureBook of which you speak? /me googles...

I’ve had one of these for about three years now and it’s great as it solid, looks good and holds all my essentials without being enormous.

To make access easy I’ve gone for the single buckle version and I’ve also got the internal divider to create a central macbook pro / A4 folder pocket and a rear section for general stuff / cables. The two rear slipper pockets hold my ipod etc. I’ve also got the front pocket with the glasses case and pen holders. I’ve not got the zip pocket because I thought the zip would scratch my laptop.

http://www.htleather.co.uk/catalogue/satchel/satchel.html#lsatch

To add a little extra padding I tend to keep my MBP in a wrapper

http://wrappers.typepad.com/ipod/applemacbookcorduroy_covers/index.html